Neutral
by Konetsu
Summary: What does it mean to feel nothing? How is it possible to live while being indifferent to the world? There's always an answer to everything, and she's willing to find them. "Why can't you just open up to me?"


_**A/N:**_

Erm...hello? Well, we were planning on being the first ones to write about this couple, but someone beat us to it! XD Anyway, we haven't really checked up on the two's section so this might be the second story, the third...

Sorry, we had to get this out here, even though our profile doesn't say it (we think, too lazy to check), we DO want to write about these two ever since we added them in StepMania. Hopefully it goes well...

**Disclaimer: **There's nothing in here we own, everything belongs to their original creator, thus meaning we are just poor children. :L

* * *

_**Neutral**_

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_**Chapter 1: Sound**_

Cul, laying in bed and staring at the ceiling with glowing red and almost evil -in her roommate's eyes- eyes, pondered why she hadn't gotten up despite her alarm clock squawking the latest hit songs for the past thirty minutes. She knew she had school, but while being a fairly good student, she wasn't a very motivated person; so she decided to give herself the day off.

"Yo, ready to- what are you doing?!" one of her roommates yelled, brushing his platinum hair back. His teal eyes glared at the lump of red, but sighed after hearing nothing for a while. "I'll get something outta my ass. But you'd better pay me back, Cul!"

The lump vibrated, indicating she had nodded like she had been doing for the past month or so; during that month, she had gone to school a total of eight times, all done in naught since she screwed around. Her teachers and classmates all wondered how she was able to pass her entrance exams, and utterly demolish her classmates in every major test they had to take.

Of course, just because she never showed up to class didn't mean she was dumb; Cul was actually both street and book smart, thus making her knowledge of both worlds that much clear. Her roommates couldn't understand her thirst for knowledge when she really couldn't care less about the subjects they had to take; they guessed it was something she wanted to major in, but she didn't seem to have a care for that either.

"Man," she sniffed, sliding upwards to sit on her knees, staring blankly at the plain wall in front of her red eyes. When Piko, Lily or Haku let her sit in their apartment all day, that meant they wanted her to clean the place up or get food, which was nearly every other two or three days. She didn't mind – she needed to eat after all – but she hated that they really didn't question her lack of appearance at the university. Nobody had problems with her, her grades were really high and she had the looks to date anybody.

Cul didn't understand why there had to be problems in her life for her to miss school and not really care for anything. She truly wasn't interested in anything, aside from personal stuff like video games, anime and reading. Aside from her need to know stuff in case a test popped up, Cul really didn't do anything to prepare for her "future." There wasn't anything she wanted to do, and getting a job was something she wanted, but was too lazy to do, unlike her other friends that needed one to support themselves. She knew only one other person she could call, and she reached for her phone to contact them.

"Hey, Yukari...yeah, I'm skipping out on today. A friend let me see the lessons, not interested in them so I don't wanna go. You are? Man, I wanted to hang out today though...alright, well I won't force you to skip out, ya know? See you later I guess." After pressing end call, Cul stepped off her bed and set down her phone, stretching out her stiff limbs to get ready for her single outing. Even if the girl she cherished more than anything wouldn't be hanging out with her she would be able to enjoy herself...if that meant having fun at the grocery store.

With the thought of Yuzuki Yukari in her head, Cul wondered just why she had considered herself to be in love with her when the two of them weren't really _friends_. Of course, to say they weren't would be an insult considering Yukari really liked being around her, even if most of the time she was blabbering on about something Cul didn't really care about, but cared enough to listen. The two had been in a group project about obesity and what was socially acceptable; they hit it off quite well, ending up being some sort of classroom best friends. However, they didn't talk much outside the classroom which was a little weird for Cul, but she endured it and cherished the time she had with the girl.

A slow pull of her door, and popping her head out to make sure everyone was gone, Cul walked over to the tiny closet next to the bathroom and took out her speaker for her iPhone. "The only time I really get to jam out to music," she smiled, entering the spotless chamber. The first thing she did was tear her clothing off and slam dunk them into the small hamper next to the sparkling toilet; Lily was the one in charge of the bathroom, and the only thing that annoyed Haku more than having to pay bills and do homework was wait for the blond every morning to finish cleaning. Next, she plugged in the speaker conveniently next to the tub and shower but far enough not to get hit by water.

"Time for a shower," she told herself to the mirror, letting loose her crimson hair, feeling the waves tickle her back with each strand that fell out of the bind. Once the first words started she hopped into the shower and started the water, loving how quick the hot water had spurted out to touch her body. It didn't take long for her voice to echo off the walls, and back into the small space she was dancing in. Nobody but Yukari would know she sang and danced while showering; it was something she knew had to be kept secret so people wouldn't bother her, as well as something she had to hold back on the weekend.

Her palm touched the glass, seeing a little bit of her hair and eyes through the fog, staying silent once a song she listened to on her gloomy days played. Of course, she was no emo, whatever that meant. There were times where being completely neutral to the world was a bit challenging. At funerals, she had to pretend to be sad when she really didn't feel a thing; during class, a fake laugh was given to jokes that made no sense. To be feeling love? It wasn't something she knew about, or even considered, aside from loving her family, which was completely different than what she was feeling towards Yukari. This..._this_ made her actually feel a little afraid, and she had nobody she could talk about it with; Piko just screwed whatever came his way, Haku was hardly ever home anymore thanks to her new boyfriend, Lily had her own problems to deal with and Yukari was extremely out of the picture considering she was the girl Cul had feelings for. It didn't help that the two were constantly flirting in their texts, cuddling when sitting near each other, doing unnecessary and caring things when they were sick, and a lot of other things that enhanced Cul's feelings.

"The hell is love, anyway," she grumbled, reaching for the shampoo.

* * *

"Hey, Piko-kun," Yukari greeted with a smile, getting a wink in return. Sitting clad in a white button up and a plaid skirt, she reminded the platinum haired boy of a school girl, instantly giving him an image of his younger sister. She looked around him only to see Lily wave at her before heading down the steps to her seat next to Megurine Luka. The pink-haired student was like Cul; unmotivated and extremely lazy, but dependable and caring, and even smarter than the redhead. Yukari also had heard she was secretly dating Hatsune Miku, the head cheerleader. She turned her attention back to the silent Piko, "She's not coming today, huh?" Her voice lacked energy even though she knew already, but the guy in front of her liked brining news to people and she didn't want to ruin his morning as well.

He nodded, sighing in his palm while looking at the blackboard down below. Today was going to be boring, "Yep. She needs like, a counselor or something. She can't be that smart but not come to school, it's unhealthy!" Piko scratched his leg with his foot for a bit and shook his head seeing Yukari raise an eyebrow, "I know the internet works wonders, but it's better for her to..get out, ya know?"

Without another word he headed for his desk in front of Yukari, happy again that he would be close to the door to get out of there. Then he jolted upwards and ran towards their teacher to inform him of Cul's absence even though it was pretty obvious. The purple-haired girl sighed and opened her notebook, ready for the boring lesson Cul predicted. After seeing the equations on that board, she knew it was going to be, so secretly she laid out her touchscreen on her lap and glanced down every few seconds to text the redhead.

_Hey, it's me. :) So, how's our team doing so far? _If she was right, Cul was currently watching the latest baseball game, and their favorite team, The Tigers, were playing against some American team; if she was right again, the other team should also be winning by a longshot.

The bell rang indicating the start of class, which also meant she had to pay attention to the lesson at hand. Yukari kept her phone on her lap, turning the sound and vibrate off so nothing would alert their professor. He was strict and a little bit of an ass, which she hated but knew she had to endure it if she wanted credit. Her phone lit up a few seconds later, showing her the name of the girl she was texting.

_Oh hey. How's Hiyama's class today, boring as always? Well, they're holding up, probably won't last very long though, these white dudes are seriously kicking ass man. :I _

Yukari giggled a bit, pretending to scratch her nose so she could hide it. This wasn't the first time she texted in class, but today seemed a little off. Once their professor started speaking, usually she would stop the conversation and pay attention, but today she didn't really feel like it and faked it.

Their texts lasted a whole twenty minutes, being mostly of talking about the lesson and what Cul was doing. Yukari suddenly had the urge to walk out and join her; the lesson was extremely boring and something they didn't need on the test at all.

"Yuzuki-san," the professor spoke aloud, voice stern and a little angry. He walked up the stairs to approach her, catching the way she clenched her thighs together in attempt to hide her obvious device. Without a sound, or even eye contact, he reached his hand out to take it, ignoring the laughs and stares shooting her.

She bit her lip and decided to take the hard road, glaring up at him, "If I remember correctly, the man has to pay the woman for such services." If it weren't for their professor being so young – which got the ladies a little hot and bothered most of the time – nobody would've gotten her joke, but once he turned red she packed her things and awaited his famous words.

"Oh no," he growled, slamming her backpack down on the desk. His brown eyes shot lasers at her and broke through his glasses, "You stay. If I see you do it again _then_ you may leave."

Piko stifled his giggles into his notebook, warily glancing behind him to watch the scene happening at his back. "Shit man," he mouthed to himself, rubbing his platinum hair in an attempt to cover his smiles. When their professor walked back down to his area, Piko felt Yukari's foot slam into the back of his chair.

* * *

Cul slowly drank through her straw, loving the heat coming from her tea. Her eyes, hidden underneath a pair of dark glasses, stared at her laptop showing equations and other illegible things. It wasn't like her to chill out at the campus when she skipped class, but today she wanted to hang out with her friends during lunch, which was fast approaching.

Until then, she would wait at the lounge with her laptop and headphones plugged in, blaring some weird ambient music. Anyone who _knew_ her, knew of her interests, so some students who walked by completely acted as if she didn't exist, not wanting to upset her in some way.

"Hey Cul-san," a calm woman greeted, waving her hand in the air to get the redhead's attention. Her brown hair was straight and matched her eyes, a pair of chocolate brown that were analyzing the girl sitting down thoroughly. Sakine Meiko was known for her playgirl attitude despite already having a boyfriend, but none of her acts could break Cul, which was one of the reasons the two were such good friends. Cul's dullness did nothing to break her cheerful attitude and her flirtations couldn't make anything flash in red eyes.

Taking the earphone from her right ear, Cul nodded at Meiko, "Hey. What are you doing out of class, Meiko-san?" she asked, somewhat guessing the answer. Either she had just had some fun or was doing an errand.

"I know that look," Meiko chuckled, shaking her head. She took a seat across from her friend and sat in it with the back of the chair pressed against her front. "I just had to take a huge test right now, don't feel like going back to any class so I'm just going to pretend that I've been taking it all day." She brushed her bangs and gave Cul a knowing look, "You're not any better."

Cul scoffed, pushing her glasses upwards to match Meiko's look. Normally she wouldn't wear her glasses outside of, well, outside, but today since she was at the campus and easily noticeable from her hair and eyes (any other redhead normally had either black or brown) they were necessary. "C'mon, at least I take the time to study for said tests; thanks to loving friends like Piko I know the entire schedule."

It was difficult to take her seriously, but Meiko shrugged anyway. "The life of a hermit I guess..." She laughed a little when one spark of a glare flew from red eyes. "Chill, I'm kidding. Anyway, Kaito wanted me to ask some friends to go out tomorrow night. Since my usual friends ditched me to go on some adventure in Italy with their class, my only other options were my..._friends_, or you."

_Glad to know I'm a rebound..._

Meiko scratched her cheek in nervousness out of being rejected by Cul after seeing her eyes go dark, but smiled upon seeing a small, minuscule nod. "Great! Thanks, and bring your friend!" Without another word she jumped from her seat and plopped down onto the couch behind the redhead to rest. "I'm gonna take a nap, throw something at me once you see...egh, Tsukimura."

Cul muttered a small sound in agreement and went back to reading her article. She had never heard of this man before, but she wondered why he so ignorantly expressed knowing how to biologically create children from both sexes. "Some people," she whispered with a shake of her head. While she wished it was true, there really wasn't an option for her to have a kid with her future wife, whoever that was going to be.

* * *

"Hey, you were boss in the lecture room Yukari-chan!" Piko exclaimed, waving his hands in the air. The girl beside him giggled and they shared a small knuckle punch in greeting. "I swear Hiyama was going to kill you!" He opened the door for them to make it through the building and started walking through the grass so they could go into their respective ones.

Yukari shrugged, her white t-shirt never moving an inch. "Well, if he had acted like nothing happened, then it would've looked true that I was a whore and he was a paying customer," she explained, pointing her finger up in a matter-of-face way. She peeked at him with one eye open, and after seeing his face in a blank, confused state she started laughing, pointing toward the stairs through a few glass doors. "I have to go, Piko-kun. Go to class on time!" His class was on the other side of campus, and with the speed he went, it was nearly impossible for Piko to even make it five feet near his classroom on time.

He glared at her playfully from below, not even noticing she had ascended. "I hate that class, Yukari-chan! All she ever does is stare at me and it's uncomfortable!" He fidgeted with his fingers at describing his creepy Literary Arts professor. Despite her being _younger_ than him – and his classmates – by one year, she was still his teacher, even if he thought of her as the hottest thing on the planet.

"Ha! You know you want her, Piko-kun. Watch, that one guy – what's his name again? Ted? Yeah, I heard he was going after her," she warned, finally disappearing with a group of fast paced students.

Yukari reached the top in time to catch her breath; attempting to keep up with the others was a workout within itself. Everybody moved so fast yet so smooth and even after a year it was pretty difficult. However, she knew the work was worth it. The lounge was a small, circular room with vending machines, four flat screens pushed together to create a huge TV for movie nights, the hall on the right to the theater, and one to the left that led to the room professor's met to gossip themselves.

It was also placed in one of the buildings that held the most popular places to eat at lunch. Luckily Yukari had never told them this, but since she had an empty spot for this time, she would eat earlier than most and just hang out where she pleased. On the second floor she would hang out until it was time to go but she was always satisfied.

"Yukari?"

Cul's voice stopped her on the last step, and she whipped her head to the side to see the redhead staring at her through dark glasses, raising a red eyebrow at her. Meiko, her classmate from Drama was surprisingly also there and comfortably asleep. It made her raise an eyebrow herself at her but she shook her head and looked toward the other student still staring at her.

"Cul-chan?"

"Ah, didn't you say you had...what class again?" Cul asked uninterested, looking at her from over her glasses. She minimized her windows and pushed back her chair, letting the legs rattle on loudly to make up for the awkward silence. Today Yukari looked extremely cute and Cul had to restrain staring at her too much else she'd look creepy.

Yukari giggled and shook her head, dropping her books onto the table across from Cul's laptop. "None! You don't remember because there's nothing to really know. I always come up here, that's why I never text you," she explained, rotating her shoulders from the heavy load she had to carry up. She really needed to start using a backpack. "Anyway, I thought you were watching the baseball game? What, or who, made you come here?"

She shrugged in return, finally having enough room to stand and approach Yukari for a hug. It lasted a bit longer than intended but it was comfortable and she ended up having butterflies in her stomach, threatening to lift her out of there. "It ended. Tigers lost, and I had nothing to do so I decided to hang out with you guys for lunch. It's boring at the apartment." Cul shrugged again and plopped back into her seat, sliding her finger against the pad on her laptop to wake it up. "But we don't have to stay here. Class is just staring."

"I'd rather not risk the chance of being seen. I've told the admin that I don't want a class taking up this time but they don't listen," Yukari sighed and shook her head, playing with her nails. Her eyes studied the redhead across from her and noticed she was already typing away on her laptop doing who knows what. It didn't stop her from continuing since Cul was still obviously listening. "They told me if they see me wandering campus during this time I'm getting the boot."

Cul scoffed, blankly raising an eyebrow at her dilemma, "Please. Classes are separated; who can tell who has class and who doesn't? I don't see why you can't just go back to the dorms." Her glasses hid her eyes but Yukari knew what was going to be in them: plain old nothing. She was amazed that she had met someone so...indifferent, about everything. Cul made her curious, whereas others like her were merely like that on certain occasions, Cul was always neutral whether anyone liked it or not. Even for her own birthday she was dead as stone. It made her wonder just what caused this, or if she was like this since birth.

"The dorms are small and don't have huge TVs or vending machines or snack places. I'm telling you, if you ever wanna stay from class come here. Nobody cares as long as you don't cause distractions to those using the rooms here."

Cul shook her head, giving her small smile before reverting back to a thin line, "I'll do without...besides, if I get caught out of all people, I'm dead. They don't care because I don't show up to school, but still do well on things. Physically being here means they can do something about it."

"That's what we're here for," a man replied sternly, staring the two down with his darkening gray eyes. He had on a business suit, meaning he was one of the ones Cul tried avoiding. Not only that, but Yukari and Meiko were skipping – though Yukari sort of had an excuse – so his frown drifted into a sick smirk. "C'mon, wake Sakine up and follow me to the head office, ladies."

A curse ran through their heads at the same time, and they knew there was no way to avoid their troubles now. Yukari's hands shook a little at the thought of getting kicked out, but Cul bumped her shoulder as she passed by her, giving her a look that told her she'd handle it. They both kicked at Meiko's legs and she jolted awake, not being able to say a thing as she was pulled off her makeshift bed and toward the stairs.

* * *

"Do you know how_ long_ I've been dying to see you again, Shion?"

A man with a clear bald head looked at the redhead through similar dark glasses, hiding some of his wrinkles but failing to cover up his age. With his hands intertwined together he hid his smirk and looked down at the file in front of him, opened and showing printed pages of her grades and scores on tests as well as attendance that was nearly all covered in red.

The three sat in a perfect line, Cul in the middle while the other two were sitting on the side. Meiko was unusually quiet but it seemed she had fallen asleep once again, something not even Yukari could ever dream of.

Cul sighed and shrugged, "I can't, I'm never here so I wouldn't know." Her glasses sat on her lap so her glare was easily seen. It was the first time in a while that Yukari had seen her so upset, and felt she was partly at fault. "I do great on most things, I don't see why you don't let me do what I want here."

The man that had escorted them in shook his head with his arms crossed, clearly doubting her intelligence. It made Cul twitch in anger. "You don't get it," he sighed, "But I guess that's a given..."

"Anyway," the bald-headed man sighed, pushing the documents to the side. "If you three agree to participating in one hundred hours of community service starting next week, we'll let it slide. However, if you want to continue playing games here on campus we'd be happy to send you to a community college if that's what you like." He was dead serious, not even the sunlight pouring in through his window could make their situation brighter. However, it did give his bald head a small glint, one Yukari couldn't help but stare at in fascination.

Cul sat up even straighter in her chair, eyes wide and mouth a little open. Yukari could literally see strands of hair starting to fly up in every direction. After a few seconds of watching her and silence, Cul let out a loud, shocked and high-pitched, "Ehh?!" that clearly voiced her opinion on the matter.

It was the first sound other than her voice Yukari had ever heard.

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_**A/N:**_

Meh, it's pretty short, but LOOK at 'dem paragraphs. But this story is meant to be short, so don't worry. At the most it'll last about four or five chapters. *shrugs* Anyway, leave a question, comment, praise, flame (although we'd prefer not reading nor seeing these...) or any other critique you'd like to voice out, and we'll see you later!


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